Lucy Lawless, who will voice Goldmoon, posted the following on her site:

I just did the voice of an animated cartoon for Paramount, called Dragonlance. Obviously it's a fantasy story, with gods and monsters -- (no lesbian subtext). I never felt I nailed animated performance before, so wanted to get a handle on it.

I played a character called "Goldmoon," a Native American. We played around with accents awhile. I didn't know she was Native A till I got there and so didn't have time to research the accent (not many of those where I come from). More staccato! More commanding! More warm! Less disjointed! . . . Ummm, do you just want me to do Xena? Ahh, yes! That's it, do Xena! The voice is perfect! So warm, so commanding, so . . . yeah, yeah, let's get on with it.

It was actually really fun. At last I have done something my friends can actually watch. My son is gratified that I am not playing a bad guy. He can't stand me going to BSG every day to be mean to humans.

Oh well, it's a living!

L

Other characters that have been cast: Michael Rosenbaum will voice Tanis Half-Elven, Jason Marsden will voice Tasslehoff Burrfoot.

*bangs head on desk* They are going to step on my childhood. I can just feel it.

I got into the dragonlance books in 7th grade. Scott Harned was reading the first book and I read the back. He moved onto the second and I began the first. I read the first book in 7 days- i think it was 500 pages and then left Scott in the dust. I blazed through a bunch more and IIRC, my favorite was the Legend of Huma.

Tried to pick them up again a few years ago, but the writing came off as so juvenile and uninspired. Still- I have the fondest memories of reading those series.

I still read through them every couple years. Sure, they're juvenille, but it's still a damn good story.

I was a lot more optimistic about this until I checked out the animation company's website.. Their style is much more Rugrats than Larry Elmore. I guess it could still be good, but I won't hold my breath.

I still read through them every couple years. Sure, they're juvenille, but it's still a damn good story.

I was a lot more optimistic about this until I checked out the animation company's website.. Their style is much more Rugrats than Larry Elmore. I guess it could still be good, but I won't hold my breath.

If they did it in the old D&D cartoon animation style that would be hot....and of course they'd need to somehow work in a cameo of Venger!

Isn't that basically what she is (other than the blonde hair IIRC) she could be swapped out for an Incan priestess... I mean, D&D *IS* derivative of the world around us. For some reason, dwarves got saddled with being short, hairy, stoneworking scotsmen.

High elves are more high-society british/french with an organic twist (rather than them being hippies).

Clearly gully-dwarves are from Jersey. ;D

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"If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we'd still be eating frozen radio dinners." - Johnny Carson

I was always wondering why that stupid D&D movie didn't go with Dragonlance (or at least some D&D world setting).

It would have been cool to see a live action DL, but animated works too.

Me too. Dragonlance books are my favorite, I think they can make a good trilogy movies using the story from the books. It'll be like Lords of the Rings plus the good guy become villain twist of Star Wars with Raistlin character.

I couldn't find any Forgotten Realms setting books that can come close of the Dragonlance one. Even the famous Dark Elf story is boring to read.

I was always wondering why that stupid D&D movie didn't go with Dragonlance (or at least some D&D world setting).

It would have been cool to see a live action DL, but animated works too.

Me too. Dragonlance books are my favorite, I think they can make a good trilogy movies using the story from the books. It'll be like Lords of the Rings plus the good guy become villain twist of Star Wars with Raistlin character.

I couldn't find any Forgotten Realms setting books that can come close of the Dragonlance one. Even the famous Dark Elf story is boring to read.

I liked the Drizzt books, but there was another set of books about a cleric (of all things) that was really well written. Can't recall the name but there were five books. The guy was kinda like a Cleric/MacGyver type guy. Good stuff. That said, none of them hold a candle to Dragonlance.

Not getting the Dragonlance love. I read the first book and stalled out halfway through the second when I was 15 or 16. At the time I remember thinking "This seems like a pretty juvenile rip-off of Tolkein." I did play through some of the modules when I was into D&D and they were fun.

I'll take the Dark Elf trilogy any day. At least he was doing something more or less original.

Has anyone actually READ the Dragonlance series recently? Dude, it's just bad. It was gripping literature way back before my testicles descended, but this one didn't make it into my "box o nostalgia" alongside Voltron or The Goonies. It's not a pure ripoff of Tolkien (not like the Shannara series), but shit man, I had better characters drawn on my trapper keeper. The "Medevial Road Trip" novel has been done much better by many many more people.

It's just dumb. But hey that's good news, there's absolutely no way that this animated series can make it any dumber.

And Tasslehoff could be the most latently homosexual/asexual character EVER. That's right, beats out He-Man. One day I'm going to write a novel and it's going to be all about hobbits/kender/halfings getting it on. I'll title it Halfings have genitals too you fucking insensitive assholes.

I never really embraced the Forgotten Realms, I was always a big Greyhawk fan. FR always seemed pretty bland for some reason. Maybe bland is a bit harsh... I guess generic is a better term.

I stopped reading Dragonlance (for the most part) after the Twins trilogy, and from what others have said... it seems like a good move. I actually liked the characters and setup for the stories involving Caramon's kids and the crew... but IMO they completely bungled it. I skimmed that latest book where they killed off everyone in the entire world, and pretty much felt it wasnt worth it.

Not getting the Dragonlance love. I read the first book and stalled out halfway through the second when I was 15 or 16. At the time I remember thinking "This seems like a pretty juvenile rip-off of Tolkein." I did play through some of the modules when I was into D&D and they were fun.

I'll take the Dark Elf trilogy any day. At least he was doing something more or less original.

Different strokes, I suppose. The Drizzt novels bored me to tears, but I can still enjoy Dragonlance 20 years later. I'm sure nostalgia plays heavily into it, as they were the first 'epic' (in a 10 year-old mind) series I read.

I read the Dragonlance trilogy (and then the Twins trilogy) for the first time just about three years ago. While I didn't think it was nearly as good as everyone had always made it out to be (like some sort of fantasy novel Second Coming or the like), I really did enjoy them quite a bit for what they were. There were a lot of really weak spots in the books, but they hit the right notes emotionally, and archetypes are archetypes because they do, after all, work.

This movie sounds like the makings of a train wreck though. A complete bloody, carnal train wreck of incompetence caused by a drunken train driver coked out of his brain.

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Has anyone actually READ the Dragonlance series recently? Dude, it's just bad.

I did. I had never read it before despite reading a ton of Forgotten Realms books over the years. I finally got up the nerve to try it since it is often lauded (by fans, at least) as the best fantasy since LotR and introduces this amazing world and other heaps of world-changing praise. Needless to say it didn't live up to my expectations. And I have read plenty of bad fantasy in my time. Now maybe if I had never read a fantasy novel before it might have been interesting, but... it's not just the story that seemed boring, but as others have mentioned, the prose is dull and overly simplistic. Now I realize this book wasn't necessarily meant for a grown man, and perhaps not for fantasy veterans, but it just didn't do anything for me.

I'll title it Halfings have genitals too you fucking insensitive assholes.

Wow. :shock: Someone is a little defensive about his height. :lol:

The three "dragons of " books are done well, but are a simple story. Done well. Polished. Not long and drawn out. You could finish them inside 2 weeks casually. I have nothing against them; I'd prefer re-reading the Necroscope series (one to five... sci fi) or Wizards First Rule... or even Memory, Sorrow and Thorn (which was HEAD & SHOULDERS above this series).

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"If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we'd still be eating frozen radio dinners." - Johnny Carson

or even Memory, Sorrow and Thorn (which was HEAD & SHOULDERS above this series).

Oh man, I LOVE that series! I read the first book in high school, but my little podunk hick Louisiana town didn't have any of the other books, and at the time I had no internet access to try to get hold of the rest of them.

I forgot about it over several years, then after college I spotted them in a bookstore one day. Bought all four books in the trilogy on the spot!

Awesome, awesome story, even if it's got a lot of predictable events. It's just done so well!

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As for it being a rip off. isnt everything, thereafter tolkein a rip off? I mean the guy pioneered so many new words, and places, and ideas.

Actually, from everything I've read, Tolkein wasn't that original. He just happened to put a plethora of elements borrowed from a myriad of cultures in a way that resonated with a broad audience.

Certainly he was original in lots of ways. He developed an entire Elven language, both written and spoken. This was before he began writing anything. He then wrote the history of these Elves which was published posthumously as The Silmarillion. From that back story he began writing The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

Yes his stories do have elements that were already found in other fiction (elves, magic, etc) but what was completely original about Tolkein was the way he developed an entire world with languages, races, characters, and a multiple-thousand year history all of which informed his later published works. No one had really done anything like that before.

See, while I enjoyed Tolkein to some extent. I find him sort of boring. it was more like erading a hisotry book than it was a fantasy novel for me.

I haven't ever read beyond The Hobbit, but the whole idea you mention thrills me. A friend of mine was reading The Silmarillion (I think, the one that is more a history book) and it sounded great. I like to really get into the world, especially if it is well done. Then again, we both teach history so I guess we are just geeks for the whole thing and are kind of used to reading dry stuff like that.

I just don't have the time to devote half of my life to delving into the history of Middle-Earth. Which is undoubtedly what I'd do if I got started.

before him, elves did things like bake cookies and help cobblers with shoes at night. They were under a foot high (the "wii people") with shoes that curled up.

They were never taller than humans, or longlived and well-educated.

Or at least, I've not been able to find any reference before them. See, the nature of derivatives is that it truly is only derivative if there was a direct influence in which the concept is derived. For instance, if I were to write a book that mimic'd the Lord of the Rings but had no prior knowledge of the books or their derivative works they could still exist without being truly derived.

And Tolkiens works at this point in history are canon for the Fantasy genre. This statement is certified to NOT be begging the question.

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"If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we'd still be eating frozen radio dinners." - Johnny Carson

As long as you stopped after the first 3 books in the series. I loved that series through the first few (hence the screen name). but God, did it turn into a mess. Haven't even bothered picking up the last two.

I loved the Dragons of Series. Its by far one of my favorite series of books. The development of the Chracters, I thought, was great. raistlin from that low level mage with no real purpose or power, and onward.

The rebirth of cleric within the world. The classic battle between good and evil. The connection that the characters make. Flint, Tanis, tass. the love story or lust story of Kit, and Tanis.

I think there is a lot here, that prolly gets over looked. tanis fight with his own people not liking him being a halfbreed, and the humans not liking him for being a half breed. So where does he fit?

The Twins series is really the only other set from the entire dragonlance series that I thought was well done. Most of the other stuff felt half hearted, or just a copy of something they had already done. Stories like Raistlins daughter just irked me. I did like the first two raistlin chronicles books, I wish they would have written a third.

You know, the one character I absolutely despised because he was purely annoying and completely unsympathetic to me in the Dragonlance books was Raistlin.

I've never understood why so many fans like him. I didn't even find him interesting, much less like him.

"Oh, I'm the whiny goth mage, I'm better than the rest of these mortal worms, I had a tough life, oh look at me I have ultimate power now! Oh shit, Tiamat's after me! I thought I was better than her!"

Ugh... I didn't care for him in the least.

The other characters I generally found interesting, even if I didn't really like them at times. Heck, I hated Sturm at first, but in the second book really grew to find his character much better. I'd give details, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers for people like me who didn't read the books when everyone else did and may not yet have read them but might be lurking in the thread.

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Well for Raistlin, over the series he was coming into his own. As he grew more powerful he lost his humanity, counter point to Tanis. I found him to be an interesting character, full of betrayal and deception.

I read the chronicles books around 85 when they were released. No where near the big 'goth movement', I suppose. So I never really saw him as goth.

I liked his backstory. I liked his fight for himself, and the process involved in fighting to try and do the right thing. You wondered many times wether or not he was going to 'do the right thing'.

I'm not saying these factors arent present in other books. They surely are. Aragorns fight to be who he is, as well. I see the glaring similarities, between the two series, really. But I think each was done in a different style, and I think each was done for a different generation of people. I mean if you look at almost all fantasy novels, they are really all a re hash of something, someone else has already done.

*edit*

As a note, I dont remember him being 'whiney'. The guy should have been dead, and was walking around, with the potential to still be the most powerful mage. I am sure he had some issues. I think he did use his 'illness' to his advantage though. not only against his brother, but against the other Dragonlance members, and against the people around them.

I loved the Dragons of Series. Its by far one of my favorite series of books. The development of the Chracters, I thought, was great. raistlin from that low level mage with no real purpose or power, and onward.

The rebirth of cleric within the world. The classic battle between good and evil. The connection that the characters make. Flint, Tanis, tass. the love story or lust story of Kit, and Tanis.

I think there is a lot here, that prolly gets over looked. tanis fight with his own people not liking him being a halfbreed, and the humans not liking him for being a half breed. So where does he fit?

My friends and I all read DL in high school, about the same time we were discovering the benefits of rock music and certain, um, enhancers.

We spent many hours comparing Raistlin to Jimmy Page (I have no idea why) and I remember the first time we all were watching the Song Remains the Same and Page turned around with HOURGLASS EYES and from then on we knew they were the same (hey, it was over 20 years ago! )

Nothing posted pretty much...but I'm personally going to keep an eye on this to see how it goes. As a huge fan of the Chronicles, I like everyone else here will want blood if they screw it up. :twisted: